


Let Me Go

by ItspronouncedJulia



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: A Happy Ending Depending On How You Look At It, Angst, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Character Death, F/F, Gen, Major Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 06:41:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18615220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItspronouncedJulia/pseuds/ItspronouncedJulia
Summary: Wanda doesn’t remember the dying part of death all too well.





	Let Me Go

**Author's Note:**

> Major and I mean MAJOR spoilers for Endgame in this story so if you haven't seen the movie read at your own risk.

Wanda doesn’t remember the dying part of death all too well. When she thinks of it, which is not often if she can help it, dying had felt like exhaustion and death had felt like finally falling asleep.

The afterlife had been dark. When Wanda regained her conscience everything had been black. So black that Wanda wouldn’t be able to see her own hand mere inches from her face. She realizes now that’s because she had no eyes to see with and no hands to see even if she could. The afterlife was nothing like Wanda had expected.

It was quiet and lonely. Until it wasn’t.

 _You didn’t see that coming,_ of course, Pietro’s voice would be the first she hears. He sounds very far away but Wanda is no longer alone and suddenly the darkness around her is not so quiet and though she can’t see, she can _hear_ the playful smirk on Pietro’s face as he repeats the words.

For a long time, this is all she hears. Pietro’s voice echoing all around her as she hears bits and pieces of him speaking. From both before and after their transformations. Sometimes Wanda can hear his laughter, loud and boisterous, and she feels elation like she has never felt, even when Pietro was alive.

Wanda is listening for Pietro when she hears her. A gentle voice singing a lullaby that Wanda hadn’t heard since her youth. If Wanda had a heart or a chest it would have burst out right then and there as she listens to the faint sound of her mother singing. Soon after Wanda hears the sound of her father shouting out happily like he used to do when he would come home from work.

For the first time in a long time, Wanda feels light as she listens to her family as she waits in the darkness. She’s not sure what she’s waiting for until she does. Wanda is waiting for the bottom to fall out from under her. She waits for the cold darkness to turn into hot hellfire. She waits to wake up suddenly back on earth in the form of a dung beetle or flesh fly. She waits for the voices around her to become silent.

But none of that happens.

Wanda stays in the darkness as her brother laughs, her mother sings, and her father shouts happily all in the distance. Wanda finds herself relaxing.

She’s finally at peace.

 

-

 

_Focus Maximoff._

Wanda gasps when she hears the new voice. It’s closer than the others, right next to where Wanda’s ear used to be.

 _This is important, you need to focus now._ If Wanda had a heart it would be shattered. The bottom has finally fallen out after it being so secure underneath her for so long.

Natasha.

Wanda can suddenly feel her all around. Wanda can hear her so clearly, she can almost see the small teasing smile on her lips, and can almost feel a firm hand on the small of her back. If Wanda had eyes she was sure that if she opened them she would be back in the compound in the training room with Natasha right behind her. A knowing look on her face as she commanded her to focus.  

 _You're not supposed to be here._ Wanda speaks for the first time since dying. _Not you._

 _Shh focus now Maximoff._ Natasha whispers. Wanda can almost smell the coffee on her breath and can almost see the mischievous glint in those bright green eyes. _You need to focus._

 

-

 

Coming back to life feels like waking up. There was darkness, there was Natasha, and then a bright burning light. Wanda flinches as her eyes adjust, there’s a hand outstretched to her and Wanda looks up at the grim face of Sam Wilson.

“We gotta go,” he says. Wanda swallows and slowly rises to her feet. The forest she died in looks strikingly similar to how it had been before she had fallen asleep. Expect Vision's body is gone and Thanos isn’t here.

Wanda turns to look back at Sam and feels a tightening in her stomach. There was no time for sentimentality.

She had to focus.

 

-

 

“I know,” Wanda says softly before Clint can tell her. He looks broken and guilty and he opens his mouth to speak but all that comes out is a pained sob. Wanda lets out a shaky breath and wraps her arms around him.

“I know.”

 

-

 

“Your magic…” Clint’s voice dies in his throat as he peers out at the lake in front of them. They’ve broken away from the funeral, Wanda first and Clint following. “I mean...isn’t there any way?”

“I’m not sure,” Wanda answers after an unbearable moment. It’s the truth, Wanda doesn’t know if her abilities could bring back Natasha. Before her death she hadn't gotten the chance to fully explore the extent of her powers. 

“How can we figure it out?” Clint asked his voice strained with desperation.

“Do we want to figure it out?” Clint’s face takes on the same broken expression he had a few days ago. His dark eyes hold a look of utter betrayal at the question.

“Don't you want to bring her back to life?” He whispered his body shaking with guilt and something Wanda can’t name. Grief felt too weak of a word.

“More than anything,” Wanda said her voice quivering with the same something she couldn’t name. “But what I want and what you want doesn’t matter if it’s not what she wants.” She adds when Clint looks at her as if shes lost her mind.

 

-

 

 _Why are you here? You're not supposed to be here._ Wanda reiterates.

_Focus Wanda._

_Why do you keep saying that?_ Wanda demands.

 _Because you’re about to wake up and you need to focus, you’re not going to be waking up to peace and quiet._ Wanda thinks she might have heard Natasha chuckle at her own words. Typical.

 _If you’re here then I don't want to wake up._ Wanda shouts. _I don't want to wake up in a world without you in it._ And this Wanda knows beyond a shadow of a doubt is the hill that she’ll die on. Or that she’ll die on again.

_Focus._

_No._

_Focus Maximoff._

_No!_ Natasha lets out a low sigh like she always did when Wanda was so blatantly obstinate. Even in death they don't change.

 _Let me go._ Natasha whispers. _I love you to, but I didn’t sacrifice myself-_

 _Sacrifice?! Who told you to sacrifice yourself?!_ Wanda shouts. 

 _Please._ Wanda has never heard Natasha plea. Not like this. _Let me go, don't let this be for nothing. Focus._

Small pinpricks of light begin to break through the darkness. Wanda does as she’s asked and focuses on waking up again and just as the last of the darkness falls away Wanda finally sees them. Pietro is standing with their parents a bright smile plastered across his face. They’re just as she remembers.

Most importantly Natasha is with them. Pietro’s arm is slung around Nat's shoulders while their mother is holding Natasha's hand tightly. Natasha is smiling brighter than Wanda has ever seen her and they all look so utterly and completely happy. 

Wanda feels peace as she looks at them, she never wants to forget this moment. 

 

-

 

“I just wish there was a way to let her know,” Clint says softly his eyes still focusing on the lake as he speaks. “That we won.”

“She knows,” Wanda says with so much certainty that it can’t be anything but true. “They both do."

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a catharsis after watching Endgame. I've never cried so much as I did when Natasha died and certainly I've never cried so much while writing a story. That being said I hope you guys enjoy.


End file.
